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Lobby group demands more affordable housing

A housing lobby group says the homelessness rate in Alice Springs has reached an unacceptable level of more than four times the national average.

NT Shelter says there is heavy demand for public and affordable housing in the town that is not being met by Government action.

The group's David Havercroft says the next government needs to ensure the issue is addressed urgently.

"Back from 2010, according to the National Housing Supply Council, we had a deficit of about 10,300 houses within the NT," he said.

"Then you can count on the fact that you've got 10,300 households who aren't participating in society as would best suit them and to maximise their livelihoods.

"We constantly hear of overcrowding, we hear of people having visitors that are impacting on their households.

"If you don't have housing being covered off properly in the broader community, much like with health and education, you you can pretty much count on the fact that you're excluding a cohort of the population from being active participants."

The NT Government says it has invested heavily in social and affordable housing in Alice Springs.

It says that, along with the Federal Government, 85 new houses have been built in town camps and almost 200 town camp houses have been rebuilt.

The Housing Minister's office also says 15 per cent of all new homes in the new suburb of Kilgarriff will be earmarked for social and affordable housing.